Lithium-ion gigafactory developer Freyr Battery has signed an agreement with the City of Vaasa, Finland, for the temporary lease of 130 hectares (1,300,000 m²)— almost a year after signing a deal with the city for the exclusive right to a 90-hectare (900,000 square meters) site.
The plot of land in the GigaVaasa area is another green light in Freyr’s plans to build a lithium-ion cell production plant and develop industrial-scale battery technology and production in the country in “strategic collaboration” with the City of Vaasa.
The agreement enables Freyr to begin soil investigation and preparatory work as a prelude to potential construction.
The lease is valid from 1 May until December 31, 2023, with the option for a one-year extension.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the firm and the city last year was part of Freyr’s plans to develop up to 43GWh of battery cell production capacity by 2025 and 83GWh by 2028.
The temporary land lease agreement of the Vaasa plot is larger than the area reserved in the initial MoU, to increase the company’s efforts to accelerate supply to meet the expected increasing demand for batteries.
Prior to this land lease, Freyr began an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for its Vaasa project— an essential step towards understanding the impact that the proposed factory may have on the local environment.
The firm aims to conclude the assessment procedure before the end of 2022 with a subsequent potential investment decision in Finland’s first gigawatt hour scale battery cell facility.
